In recognition of this year’s Tobacco-Free Awareness Week, the website WalletHub spoke with the Geisel School of Medicine’s James Sargent about strategies for individuals trying to quit smoking, about regulating e-cigarettes, and about what insurance companies, as well as state and local authorities, should do to encourage people to quit.
“Smoking costs society billions in medical costs and years of life lost,” says Sargent,” a professor of pediatrics and of community and family medicine. “Yet insurance companies balk at incentivizing smokers to quit. Instead, they pay out billions to treat all the diseases smoking causes—cancer, heart attacks, chronic lung disease, etc. Insurers should be identifying their smokers and reaching out to them proactively.”
Read the full story, published by WalletHub.